Twists in the chain
by sombodiesins
Summary: "She smiled coldly at Damon 'You always did have a thing for red heads darling." Back from the dark dimension Bonnie is hiding a terrible secret, but with Elena exiled from this world she is prioritizing putting her life back together over saving the world again. But fate often seems to have other plans when you cannot escape the secrets you know or the fifty year old one you don
1. Chapter 1

Bonnie opened her eyes and immediately wondered if she had. The darkness seemed as black and stifling as it had done with them shut, she blinked several times to no avail. If any it was lighter with them shut shadows of colored stars shone behind his eye lids. She screamed, it was more of a reflex action and the sound did not break cleanly it had almost a muffled sound, cautiously Bonnie stretched out her arms to explore her surroundings she seemed to be lying on a bed of silk and her body slid like a mermaid against it. For some reason aside from being in the pitch black in a completely strange place a sense of unease was building in her throat as her hands touched on padded walls. Immediately she attempted to sit up but a solid wall a few inches away from her face knocked her back down again. And then she began to scream in earnest.

Her knuckles torn from hammering at the lid of the coffin she admitted defeat curled as best she could, crying her heart thumping desperately in her throat was she dead? Dying? Was this what death was like? Would she like here for an eternity and feel her skin melt into luminous bones and into dust?

And then the lid flew split through the sky with a crack and illuminated her liberators face. He was a vampire she could see that at once but unusually aged at about forty, his olive skin weathered round his handsome face and his eyes a liquid empty coal. Bonnie opened her mouth or tried to instead her lips spread into a sort of pout. She just stared up at him "It's been awhile my dear." He said with a voice like a snake. Then suddenly Bonnie's body began to act in a way as though it did not belong to her as though she was barely attached her fingers tugging dreamily at strands of red hair. She rose from the grave in one single movement rocking back on her heels to a standing position she turned and looked down at the broken grave. A single lily lay on the heap of red silk. But when she turned back the man had disappeared.

Suddenly Bonnie took off, her hair and white lacy nightgown stinging against her skin as she took in the surrounding wasteland. It looked like a scene of Scottish highland. The plane stretching ahead of wet grass was green and grey and the flayed night jaded blues, purples and reds. From the corner of her eye she could see the candle lit glow of a small village down the valley. But her legs would no more let her turn to its sanctuary than her mouth would let her cry out and she carried on drifting the crown of jet black stones in the distance. He was standing there in the middle of the circle and for the first time Bonnie understood what it was like to be on the receiving end of one of her visions for as she spoke the voice and words were unrecognizable to her.

"What is your problem Radley?" Her voice had a piercing quality to it and rang off the stones. He was in full evening dress she noticed through another bolt of silver a sleek tuxedo and spoke with a crisp British accent "Now, now you would blame me, but I have not brought you here that is your own doing." The girl, who was not Bonnie laughed bitterly "I have been dead for over fifty years why should I disturb myself now?" Bonnie or the part of Bonnie that was Bonnie shivered dead? The man shrugged "More of my daughter's concern than mine I'm afraid Caitlin I can't really say I noticed you too much when you were alive, but then who did? Such a short little life..." The girl interrupted suddenly "You can't have it, I do not possess it any longer and I shall never tell you who does." Radley scoffed "Please I am already aware you gave that to Adalie at your death, it's not piece information easily kept Caitlin, but enough about my daughter since you've brought me here, you'll be pleased to know I've decided to be a gentleman." He smirked. The girl snarled "Gentleman?! You bastard! How can you even speak of such things?" "Now my dear." He reproved "Family business is family business. This is quite another thing, seeing as you brought me all the way here…" "Debatable." She muttered under her breath "I've decided to give you a sporting chance." He paused, to allow his generosity to sink in. "There is a certain American young woman who has been causing all sorts of pretty little waves where none are wanted, changing the course of history and things like that. I'd think you'd like her" he added conversationally leaning against a great black stone. "Though you can imagine, Adalie never would, well this young woman and her little friends have caused a lot of trouble in a rather quiet part of the western world called Fell's church and the simple and most obvious solution would be to kill her." This time Bonnie was glad that the person who seemed to have possessed her appeared as horrified and anguished as she felt. "You can't do that she's just a child! There has to be something else I won't let you!" But Radley seemed non plussed he walked over to Bonnie towering over her at six foot inside Bonnie cringed away from his wolfish face, but she held his gaze fierce and strong. "Then give Elena Gilbert a message from me tell her to run." Bonnie's face twisted in confusion "Elena Gilbert who the hell is…" "Who knows?" Radley laughed walking away from her "I think you and I are not the only one's watching my dear and surely some one wants to know will pass the message along, you always did have such a gift for the sight and such lovely red hair." And he turned into the shadows and suddenly she was falling the landscape rushed by her in a blur.

Falling, falling to a certain rave she suddenly became in control of herself again and twisted her neck just in time to see the lettering on the polished moonlit stone thumb. _Caitlin Rosalind MacLachlan 1930-1951_ and she were lying paralyzed in the dust and dirt of a newly dug grave. A patter of footsteps against the wet grass and a tall girl dressed stunningly in a silver fishtail of a dress knelt down to the green grass and looked down at Bonnie. She was the prettiest girl Bonnie had ever seen with an oval shaped face, high white cheekbones and forehead, a heart of pink quartz colored lips and huge lilac almond eyes her dark hair pinned into a chignon. As she knelt at the graveside she crossed her self and then reached up to undo a silver chain at her neck. "I think you deserve this more than I do darling." Her voice like the other girl Bonnie now realized had the slightest hint of French at its accent. She let the little silver crucifix hang swaying between her fingers. "I will avenge you, you know," She whispered "I'll put my hands around his throat and enjoy it" The goddess smiled quite to herself "I love you." And let the chain fall. As it landed across Bonnie's eyes darkness claimed her once again.

She woke in the dormitory she shared with Elena in Meredith in a state of complete terror, which swelled in her throat as she found the room empty. But the sun was shining from the curtains it was a unusually warm October morning. Bonnie twisted to look at her radio clock Midday! Not even a nightmare! More of a day mare she thought in disgust and stretched getting out of bed. Taking a large gulp of water she waited for a moment as a wave of nausea hit her and dashed to the bathroom. As her hands slammed onto the china sides she heard s strange unfamiliar chink from her left hand. When she was done she held her hands in front of her wondering if she had put Lady Ulma's opal ring on the wrong hand by accident but twisted around her index finger like a reminder, was a silver chain. Bonnie got dressed so fast., pulling a summer dress over her body and shoving mints into her mouth, that she was surprised to find herself minutes later standing outside her door. And wondered if her body had been over taken again but this was defiantly her own heart beating and her own legs racing. She ran outside and spotted by way of Elena's golden hair perched on top of a picnic table. They were all there even Damon lounged across a bench like a black panther. "There you are sleepy head." Meredith laughed as she approached her skin glazing cold "You've been working so hard we just didn't have the heart to wake you, do you want to get breakfast Elena and I thought…" Bonnie gulped she could not afford to be the hysterical little girl any longer, her visions were pointless if she could not properly convey them but where to start breathe… think… and the words came all by themselves "Percival Radley has a message for Elena. Run."


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey so thank you for all the reviews in the last chapter just keep them coming thanks the real stories going to get going soonish but I need a couple of starting chapters! xx**

"Percival Radley!" Damon snarled the name ripping through his teeth. "Who?" Various eyes fixed on Damon and Bonnie, who stared at each other, eventually Stefan spoke up. "He's a vampire a powerful one the head of the Radley family." "Family?" Meredith asked perplexed "Well as you know our history is not particularly well recorded, just legends and myths and one such myth goes, that the mother of our race was a witch named Persephone who lived in ancient Greece." "Anyway her mum like banged an elf or a god or something so she had special powers long story short she had some babies but when they got all bitey she condemned them all to the dark dimension except for the Radley's who were all supposedly descended from" "But what about the old ones?" Meredith asked, "Does the legend mention those?"

Stefan opened his mouth, but Damon shrugged and spoke quickly "not sure, there's no real evidence to the myth just the Radley and the other vampire families of course the witches might know something but if so their not talking any way it's not important. What's important is how red bird heard of Radley and why he's after Elena." Elena smiled an awful little martyr smile leaning onto Stefan's shoulder he bent down and protectively kissed her forehead. The single movement made Bonnie feel chilled with jealously and she wrapped her arms around her abdomen for comfort. "I had a vision he didn't like the way we rewrote time last summer." She said simply. It was like she had become part of a brick wall; Stefan gave her a blank nod, and Elena a watery look and Damon turned away from her completely. They had other things or mind now Bonnie thought bitterly, precious Elena. "This is bad if Radley's after you, well telling you to run is just cruel," "Why?" Elena said calmly "What will he do to me?" "Kill you, if you're lucky." "But that won't happen." Stefan said firmly kissing her forehead again and scowled at Damon. Damon rounded on him "Well your going to have to make your mind up to see a lot worse than that if you disagree like I know you will to what I'm going to suggest." "What?! No you can not involve her." Damon shrugged again "look I know she's evil, but she's also the best chance we have." "Vampire families?" Meredith repeated. "Sorry I just, well I've never heard of something like that." "Well their very secretive mixed very deeply into the dark ends of human society freemasons and that shit. Vampires are not exactly well known for their sociable nature. But the families reproduce; most vampires can only do that with witches." He lowered his voice as a couple of young freshman walked past giving them a strange look." which is why, before you suggest it we cannot stave them off with well a actual stave and just Stefan and I your wrong, god only knows what Radley will bring down upon our heads so we simply have to get going."

"I'm not sure if this is a good idea." They had been sitting outside a New York alleyway entrance for hours. The front of the building they were watching had looked expensive and posh half a castle really but the back… Bonnie hadn't being saying much she hadn't said anything since she told them about her vision. She might as well be a cell phone she thought Damon could shrink her down and switch her gabble off, stick her into his pocket until she had a vision about his princess of darkness.

"Shut up Saint Stefan." Damon slammed his hands on the stirring wheel "I'm sorry." His brother retorted "forgive me if I am not comfortable wading into a hotbed of witches who hate you." "They don't hate Bonnie." Damon interjected. "Shut up both of you." Elena pointed out the window and slender girl had stepped outside the door she was tiny petite with bright dyed hair dressed, in the October evening glow demin shorts and a crop top a large floral peace time peering over the leg on her left thigh. Damon opened his door and got out to open Bonnie's side. Elena made for the door "no just me and red bird for now if there not going to let her in then." He left the sentence unfinished slamming the door being her. Bonnie pulled at the hem of her emerald chiffon dress "Then what?" She said Damon tucked an arm around her "Then well I'll tell you minute."

The girl had lit up a cigarette and looked up at Damon with green flecked eyes like the jagged heart of an emerald "Well, well, well Senor Salvatore knocking at the door again how long has it been?" "Thirty years give or take." Damon drawled "And I have been counting each second my lovely Clarissa." She yawned unconvinced "Sure doesn't look like it, but then you always liked them red didn't you?" She smiled at Bonnie "I suppose you're the witch then I'll have it a guess Maclachen?" Damon's arm suddenly tightened around her shoulder "No McCullough." The girl nodded "well I'll let you in. Of course darling I'd let you in by yourself but with Damon the main reason is, I am rather hoping she'll kill him." "Well with that vote of confidence…" Damon gestured to the car "May I." Clarissa ignored him "Do you want them in darling?" "Erm yes." Damon took his arm off her, her job as token witch was done.

Elena, Meredith and Stefan got out the car wordlessly; unresponsive to their nervous smiles Clarissa took a step back to let them in they filed into the narrow passageway. But when Bonnie went to enter she put a hand on her arm. "Don't let him break your heart doll." She said. Bonnie turned to look at her "I know, too little to late." She smiled sadly.

The so called witch club they had been invited into reminded Bonnie of a speakeasy in the twenties. Jazz music swayed in the background large eyed, witches in long dresses clotted in groups whispering. Damon chose a table in a corner near two men dressed in tuxedo's muttering quietly. "Where is she?" Stefan hissed as they sat down with the scrape of chairs. "You haven't even told us who she is yet!" Meredith objected. Bonnie put her small pale hand over Meredith's tanned long fingered one. It wasn't like her friend to be so agitated. Both Elena and she shared a sisterly look of disapproval; Damon had been infuriating all day, not answering any of their questions. Stefan had been even worse clamming up and talking mostly in declarations of love to Elena.

"You two aren't even friends any more what's to say she won't just kill you and disappear back into the shadows." Stefan complained. Damon shrugged again "It's a chance we have to take." The argument continued, but Bonnie drowned it out a tall girl sheathed in a cat burglars outfit had emerged from the passage way. She blinked and smiled creamily. She was the same beautiful girl about nineteen or twenty with lilac eyes from Bonnie's dream. Bonnie had not disclosed the full details of her vision to the rest of them. Mainly because they hadn't asked to busy wanting her to be token witch and physic. But a niggling feeling down in her gut was like a steel clamp on the roof of her tongue. It was a feeling which Bonnie as a physic had come to trust. The girl half circled the room to where the two tuxedo men were sitting she was just out of everyone else's line of sight but Bonnie could see her quite well. They both got up "Miss Rueben." The elder of the two spoke with a rich accent that also reminded Bonnie of 1920's America extending a hand to her. "Ms please." She said shaking both their hands she had a voice like silk and ice. "But now were acquainted you might as well call me Adalie." "Please sit." The younger man had waxy white skin, coal black hair and a face that looked like it had never reached puberty or smiled.

"So is it done?" The grey haired man said pouring her a glass of red wine. Adalie nodded. "And payment?" "Usual way." She said lighting a cigarette with the end of her finger. "Well I'm sure his wife and children will be grateful." The girl gave a very Damon esque shrug. "Well they won't get a penny out of him, all that's gone to his mistress who nearly tried to poison him before I…" She giggled. "Such a strange sense of Justice." The waxy skinned man remarked. "Well it all makes sense, very un-American aren't you Adalie?" The man and Adalie laughed "My dear Robert, how old were you in the sixties? About ten? It was almost impossible to be a patriot back then least of all for a foreigner and the French always adore a protest being a communist was the most fun I ever had! Before Stalin had to ruin it by murdering about thirty million people in the thirties, bit of a fuck up still you should never trust a man with a moustache." The elder man laughed getting up. But the waxy faced man frowned with disgust. "It was also reported you bit a mans ear off at a civil rights march." The girl laughed a laugh without the slightest warmth in it. "Well I'd honestly rather eat my own ears than be a conservative, I was just helping him out." She sighed "If that's all gentlemen then..." The waxy faced man with one last lingering look of disgust rose to join his companion. The girl leaned back in her chair. Then reached down to pull off her leggings and leather jacket smoothing the silvery blue silk dress she was wearing underneath to her knees. She reached up to her glittering jewel red black hair to pull it out the bun. When Damon in three short panther like moves sprung from his seat and swung himself into the chair next to her "Hello Adalie.". The girl dropped her arm. "Hello Damon." Her lilac eyes suddenly liquidized to a blank sort of silver the same expression Bonnie wore when she was having a vision "Hello Caitlin." She purred.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi thank you so much for the reviews just keep them coming, I'm sorry if this isn't Bonnie orientated enough at the moment but it's getting there I promise. The poem is a quote from Sylvia Plath's "Daddy." Thank you again I hope you enjoy it xxxx**

London 1949

Caitlin MacLachlan reached around to the nape of her neck and caught hold of a handful of scarlet hair and twisted it tight against her scalp. "Don't you dare!" her friend Adalie exclaimed, the box of hair pins by Caitlin's elbow shout off the table and into Adalie's hand. "Don't." Her other friend Aphrodite, who was leaning over the adjacent dressing table pouting and plucking her eyebrows straightened up her silver sequined dress glittering. "Damon adores a red head, eh darling?" She winked at Adalie "I haven't the faintest idea." She replied icily. "Like I care." Caitlin replied reluctantly letting her long red locks loose. "The whole point of being a debutante is to find a husband." Adalie blew a raspberry "and I honestly think Damon would rather face the Spanish inquisition." All three girls laughed but Aphrodite stretching her long brown arms in a jazz shimmy exclaimed crossly" We're hardly being debutantes tonight" "I can tell that!" Caitlin looked slightly doubtfully at her knee length slinky teal dress. "These dresses look hardly kosher, almost like there's never been a war." "That's true." Adalie remarked. They both shot suspicious looks at Aphrodite, who did not even attempt to look innocent. "God you two are so dull, Caitlin is probably the only deb ever to somehow fit in training to be a nurse at the same bloody time and as door miss blue stocking over there" She rounded on Adalie who stuck her tongue at her "Oh do shut up Ditee, she's getting a degree from Cambridge and we love her for it." She smiled at Adalie who blew her a kiss.

"There's more to life than getting married Ditee" She said getting up and shrugging her silvery mink coat over her shoulders. Looking over at her half shrouded in shadow her huge witch eyes wide open like a pink blue slice of sunrise, she was as beautiful as dusk but that was part of the trap, the joke no man would ever put a ring around her finger. She looked over at Aphrodite who seemed to be thinking the same thing because she raised an eyebrow "Of course there is darling." She said "The divorce." "Oh fine I'll where my hair down not that it matters I don't give a damn what Salvatore thinks of me." "Yeah." Aphrodite tucked an arm into hers "and that is about as true as the whooper you told about not sleeping with him last June." She giggled and swept out the room. Adalie leant over and retouched her lipstick in the mirror. "I hope she doesn't marry anyone." Caitlin said softly "She'd never be happy with them." "Not with a man at any rate." Adalie sighed and linked her fingers into Caitlin's "Let's enjoy tonight darling. Do you have your necklace?" Caitlin brought a hand up to her throat and tugged at the platinum chain "Of course, why darling?" "Just checking, doll you never know."

"What!?" "I said Hello Damon." The girl replied coolly "getting hard of hearing old man"?" Damon laughed and then stopped abruptly. "Darling." He began. "No." Adalie replied "What can you possibly… forget that what you can possibly expect from me Damon?" We haven't been friends for over thirty years and we haven't slept together for almost a decade I'm sure you've been managing." She flicked ash off her cigarette and pulled her hair down into a straight glittering dark cloud "I see you haven't." He said "Don't flatter yourself, though it is your fault." She swallowed the rest of the wine. "Look I know you blame me for that." "Isn't that obvious." She lit another cigarette "What have you come crawling back here for anyway?" "Well," Damon drawled "we are having a little problem with Daddy dearest." Adalie shrugged "Who isn't these days I heard he single handily organized the economic crisis… wait a minute we?" She strained her neck up wards "ah" She said "Blondie."

"So this Percival Radley is your father?" Meredith asked. Bonnie was keeping her head down, apart from the mild slip about Caitlin whoever she was; Adalie had not seemed to acknowledge knowing Bonnie from anywhere and for some reason Bonnie felt it would be better to keep it that way it was hard enough being inconspicuous with two vampires lurking around. Adalie laughed, "Only biologically. I have about fifteen half siblings by him sorry fourteen." She raised the bottle of gin Damon had shoved into her hand in his direction "I forgot you killed my bitch sister. So I'm nothing special except for the fact I'm the youngest by about seventy years and a witch." "But can't you reason with him?" Elena said. Adalie and Damon laughed and even Stefan let out an involuntary chuckle. "I should tell you Blondie," "It's Elena." Elena said through gritted teeth Bonnie had to bite back a laugh the girl was glacial like even more of an ice queen than Elena. But she noticed a tremor in her hands as she lit her cigarettes.

Adalie smiled now "Darling I'm not going to remember that if you haven't noticed I'm a alcoholic anyway _Blondie_, messing with time is pretty bad in the current climate, I'm sure you could of got away with it about four hundred years ago but the world is go inter connected now even one little puny death and fuck shit is going down! Oh and being a guardian is even worse. You see Radley all the vampire families are very integrated with the darkest sides of human nature from interbreeding with witches. They are not as primitive as normal vampires." She winked at Damon "They don't need blood to survive, which makes what they do, you know chewing at maiden's necks blah de blah just purely evil. The vampire families backed the Nazi's funded some of there research in the thirties and spent the war with the FFF's" "FFF's?" "Fucking, French Fascists." Adalie replied slugging down another swig of gin. "But isn't Rueben a Jewish surname?" Meredith leant forward. "Yes." She replied simply and laughed tiredly her eyes curiously blank, leaning back in her chair

"The snows of the Tyrol, the clear beer of Vienna

Are not very pure or true." She whispered the poem a hum on her breath.

With my gipsy ancestress and my weird luck

And my Taroc pack and my Taroc pack

I may be a bit of a Jew.

I have always been scared of _you_,

With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo.

And your neat mustache

And your Aryan eye, bright blue.

Panzer-man, panzer-man, O You-

Not God but a swastika

So black no sky could squeak through.

Every woman adores a Fascist,

The boot in the face, the brute

Brute heart of a brute like you.

You stand at the blackboard, daddy,

In the picture I have of you,

A cleft in your chin instead of your foot

But no less a devil for that, no not

Any less the black man who

Bit my pretty red heart in two"

She finished quoting and chuckled coldly "He doesn't like a trouble maker and killing you is the easy option but you do have an advantage he's cruel a sadist likes his little plans that will give you time, but you mustn't let them him catch you." She pulled at her dress. "She doesn't need to see that." Damon said quickly "I don't think any of you are taking this seriously if you were Salvatore" She snarled "You might have come in here with a fucking apology, so perhaps you all need a reminder." She tugged at the neck line in the middle on her breast bone a dark bloody hole in the middle of her chest, a bullet wound.

"I was sixteen when I found out who my father was I didn't believe him. Then he shot me through the heart. I was a powerful witch even then. But emotionally I was still half a human child I never thought I would survive it and I nearly didn't. It froze me I've barely aged since I was eighteen years old. She pulled her dress down at the back scars the worst kind. Red lines enclosed in dead white skin. "Touch it if you like. It's not real just a memory." Bonnie reached out to find firm cold pale skin beneath her fingers. Meredith just gazed at it horrified "He did this to you, your father?" Elena whispered, horror twisted in Bonnie's stomach, would that bastard try and do something like that to Elena? "Not personally but then my memories are fairly hazy. It was my mother you see she was _is _a fairly interesting woman a part a Russian Jew, part a French gypsy part a British aristocrat and magic flowing from every side Radley loved her and hated it, but I don't think he'll hurt you like that. But I can tell you this for free you're not going to survive if you carry on wondering round in such a big escort, posse thing." "Where can I go then?" Adalie lit another cigarette "I was thinking, the dark dimension."

"No!" well you want to rescue the slaves don't you wasn't that the plan?" "Yes…" Elena stuttered "But the last time I went back their." "Listen honey I can't help you, as you have probably noticed I'm a mess I spend half my life zoned out and the other half killing people for money" She blew out a double smoke ring "and there's the fact that I don't particularly want to help you." Damon lunged for her, but he hadn't reached half way across the table before Adalie stopped him with a long white finger. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." From the window slit above theirs heads dusty evening sunlight streamed like a barrier between them. Damon looked down at his right hand, between Adalie's thumb and finger lapis lazuli glimmered. Damon slunk back into his seat as she smiled as though it was painful. "I'm not." He snarled playing one of your fucking games it'll be dark soon" "Scary, but you have to agree my sweet she cannot stay in this world as I recalled it is you who is in my debt not the other way around. I suggest you take my advice. A society cannot develop with slavery in its class system. I can think of a certain country that kept it on far too long and it set them back about twenty years." She lit another cigarette. "Sleep on it hun Radley can't come in here so you're perfectly ok to take rooms upstairs I've got to see a man about his dog." She got up and tossed the ring into the air which Damon caught between thumb and forefinger. "Wait." She turned on her heel as slivery shadows began to film over her eyes. "I should say, if you go only two of you including yourself will return if you're successful but you have the best chance of success with three or four of you. But you must not take the red haired witch down to the dark dimension." Adalie's eyes began to clear "There are some things that are not meant for the half light." Bonnie could not bear to meet her gaze. She knew she knew. "Make your decisions wisely and you don't have to be a genius to understand what and who I mean by that." And without another word she walked over to the bar and disappeared.


	4. Chapter 4

**It just realised I haven't been doing the disclaimer so I probably should just say I don't own the vampires diaries, Sylvia Plath's poems or Bruce Springsteen's songs, except obviously for my original characters. Thank you so much for all the reviews! I hope you like this one, so all feed back is welcome (quite a long one this time) xxxx**

"This is your fault." Stefan said for the third time, Bonnie twisted her head backwards to look at Damon upside down. He did not reply, Bonnie had never seen him look so silent and dangerous or for that matter smoking, he stuck another cigarette between his lips and ignored his brother. Bonnie, Elena and Meredith had long since separated themselves from the mainly one sided fight and sprawled across the huge emperor water bed 'How I met your mother' mumbling in the back ground. But Bonnie wasn't really watching her feet up on the pillows, absentmindedly stroking her hands across her abdomen.

"You can act like you don't give a damn about everything else _Damon_. But when it comes to Adalie Rueben you feel guilty, because you broke your word, because she mentioned Caitlin and you just let her walk all over you." Damon snarled "JUST SHUT UP." "God you two." Elena finally broke in exasperated sitting up. "Just put a sock in it there is absolutely no use fighting we have to sort out whose going to the dark dimension. I think it should be Stefan and I." "WHAT!?"

"No way Princess." Damon said "I promised you that I would come back with you to free the slaves I gave you my fucking word." "What! No Elena, love you're not going back there it's far too dangerous." "If you think your not taking me your even crazier than I thought after everything all the impossible things we've managed together and you just want to abandon me." "Ok, fine." Elena said throwing her arms up in the air. "You're right but only two of us are coming out their alive and I don't want _any _of us to be in a position to have to chose, look Merry" She turned her appealing jewel eyes on her friend "Please stay here where it's safe, your responsibilities on the earth." She looked around the room "Adalie whatever you call her is right I can't stay here and be looked after like a prisoner Stefan. And I need you and Damon." She smiled the smile that had broken thousands of hearts. And the Salvatore brothers melted.

Bonnie looked away, she could not bear the Elena the heroine act. Or maybe she was just jealous her head ached she didn't want any of them to go. But Elena was right apart from keeping her under lock and key with a twenty four hour guard what could they do keep her from Radley? "Bonnie." Meredith said quietly. She looked over everyone in the room was staring at her she met Elena's disgruntled expression, the bonnie they knew the one that never stopped gibbering and jabbering was becoming more and more of a stranger them. "I want to come to." She said stiffly.

"Absolutely not!" Damon snarled "Adalie doesn't have visions as often red bird and if she does." He muttered darkly "she only tells you after your homicidal ex girl friend attempted to stake you…But the fact is she's always right you're staying here." "And Meredith should stay with you." Stefan and Elena chorused as the argument flared up again. By the time it was midnight everyone had given up. Damon had stormed out some where; Elena and Stefan were curled up together in the other bed. And Bonnie and Meredith were top and tailing, Bonnie wiped away tears from her cheeks she had been crying as silently as possibly for what felt like hours and it had none of the release a good wail did. Her eyes wept like they were bleeding tears. She closed her eyes and sank her head into the soft pillows, she felt horribly sick and afraid even with a room stuffed full of people, she knew the visions and night mares would not relinquish her grip on her. But she was unable to evade sleep forever became partially aware of the sensation of sinking deeper and deeper into the soft white pillows. When Meredith screamed screamed. "Sorry Buffy." Adalie slurred "Sorry." Meredith who was quick to recover immediately sat up turning on the light. Elena and Stefan sat up as well. "Buffy!" "Yeah." Adalie yawned "Now Blondie wherever you are please don't freak out but." A clatter of pebbles smashed against the window. "But my stupid older brother is outside." "What!" "Oh its fine its fine." Adalie brushed the air as if she could wave away her concerns. "You are so not his type, your boyfriends on the other hand meh! But you know just hide under the covers for a minute." She opened the window and leaned out Bonnie entangled herself from the covers and cuddled up next to Meredith who looked surprisingly shaken. "The cold" she muttered gesturing to the open window as she trembled. But the night air was making Bonnie feel a lot better.

"Nicholas! what the fuck are you doing here?" Adalie yelled out the window. "Darling." A posh British accent replied "What accuse to I need to visit my favourite little sister?" Adalie looked over her shoulder and laughed like they were part of the joke. "Your favourite sister's on the 'Milano' catwalk." "Second favourite then" "I'd say considering the time difference she's fucking the…what is it fourth richest man in the world?" "Alright darling my favourite witch baby sister.. satisfied? Now unless you want me standing outside here all night singing you'll let me in." "Oh god." Adalie retreated from the window and addressed the lump beneath the covers that was Elena "I am so sorry Hun but he is not the glee-top-note-of-defying-gravity-kind-of-gay. Come up!" She yelled outside. Just as Stefan shouted "Don't you dare!"

Her Brother vaulted over the window sill. He was handsome, Damon handsome almost a masculine version of his sister except her eyes which where a witch sort of violet were replace by a sea blue colour that only existed on boys faces in novels. He flashed the room a charming smile and turned to his sister "Was this Damon's bright idea?" "Yes it was" Damon said walking through the doorway hand out stretched the two men shook. "Strange company you keep now days, meals on legs?" "Nick!" Adalie said crossly slapping her brother's arm "You can't talk about them that way." "Because it's the objectification of woman?" "Precisely don't make me bite off your ear too." "I thought you did that on a civil rights march." "Oh yes your right it was teeth at the woman's liberation in '71" Adalie said almost to herself.

"Well objects or not your all in frightful trouble Radley knows where you are, but if you take them to the dark dimension say _now_ then he'll probably let it drop if the deal takes care of the two infamous Salvatore brothers, miss troublemaker and a hunter slayer." He lit a cigarette and leant over to light Adalie's. "So you've come with a with a warning? Typical daddy's boy." Adalie muttered "Hey I'm the nice chap here." The man drawled you know the one that's not tearing out people's throats but I am suggesting if you want this to remain this to be the case… you start going now."

"Meredith." Bonnie knocked on the bathroom door softly "Everyone's outside." There was no reply. Closing her eyes Bonnie gripped the ornate handle tightly and the lock clicked open she walked in. Meredith was sitting on top of the toilet crying. Immediately Bonnie wrapped a arm around her "What's wrong!" "I should have staked him." Meredith mumbled trying desperately to control her tears. "Adalie's brother? But he didn't hurt us!" "But he's a killer!" Meredith shouted and then twisted away sobbing. Bonnie stroked her hair. "I could see it in his eyes, hanging out with _them _makes you forget how… how evil! They are its dehumanizing." She wiped tears away "Sorry" she whispered with a wobbly smile returning Bonnie's one armed hug for the first time.

"Don't tell them about this are my eyes all right." She stared up at Bonnie the rock hard façade and her clear grey eyes completely returned to normal. "It's just Adalie's right you know I owe it to the humans in the dark dimension to give them a half decent place to live. But oh god." She muttered not looking at Bonnie and half laughing. "I just wish I could be selfish I could have had Harvard, Alaric and a dirty conscience but a bright future." Bonnie had never seen her friend like this talking or crying so much and she had no idea what to say. She gave Meredith another hug. "It's not to late to have all those things you know Meredith, Elena won't demand you to come if you think about it how many selfish decisions has she made for Stefan? She understands love." She hoped she did not sound to bitter.

But Meredith shook her head "Which is precisely why I need to go. Someone in that band of midsummer dreamers has to be sensible." She bit her lip and got up swinging her bag over her shoulder, turning away from Bonnie. "But god," She said so quietly Bonnie almost couldn't here you "I want you to come to."

Outside on the curb it was dark and freezing after about ten minutes Adalie's red convertible pulled up at the curve. Bonnie noticed that in the same way it was in Scotland her driving seat was on the right hand side of the car. "Hop in." She said cheerfully. "Sorry for the hold up I think I may have run someone over." "Are you sure this is safe." Meredith whispered "She's drunk." "High functioning alcoholic." Damon muttered. "But well done on the maths _darling_ how many seats are there? Five?" And lets see how many of us one... two." "Oh do shut up! And just get in." Stefan, Elena and Meredith clambered into the back. Bonnie got in first next to Adalie and found as she did so the seat stretched behind her and popped out a seatbelt to accommodate Damon. "Really Damon you must see a therapist about that Body dysmorphia your bum is not that big!"

"So" she said pulling away from the side walk. "Where exactly are we going with this? I mean we can't go back to fells church so er where did you guys use as a gateway last time?" "Last time." Elena said icily "Meredith and I." "And Bonnie." Meredith added quietly "Yes, we had to go in as slaves. No way is that happening again! Have you not even been to the dark dimension?" "Like it or not." Adalie said "I am half a Radley at that means I can't go the dark dimension and have little desire to." "Why not?" "Oh I don't know." Adalie sighed "Let's have some music, in honour of your wonderful country, perhaps Bruce Springsteen?" She pushed the silver disc into the C.D slot. And she began to sing in a clear beautiful voice along to the music "So" Elena said irritably "When did Damon and you meet?" "Oh When was it darling? During the war, I think." "She tried to stab me." Damon said flatly.

"Really." Stefan chuckled. "I was ten," Adalie continued to clarify "and I lived with my elder sister and her husband." "The posh fucker." Damon interrupted "Oh shut up, anyway my sister she was my mother's first daughter- nothing to do with my father. Well she was pretty afraid that my father would discover me and shoot me in the chest or something, so she told me to if I ever saw anyone with a vampire aura to scream and shove something wooden into them and scream blue murder. As it transpired I was not a very good screamer. But I got very close to creeping up on Damon." "I knew you were there the whole time!" Damon snapped "Lies." Adalie sang "Don't_ you worry darlin' No baby, don't you fret. We're livin' in the future and…"_

"And Stefan." Elena added "Oh when I was about seventeen we were in some of the same social circles I was a lot nicer back then, so where are we going? I'm thinking Salem. "Salem?" I don't see why not." Adalie lit a cigarette and blew a bolt of smoke in Bonnie's direction "Oh sorry doll." She said hurriedly batting the smoke away grinding her cigarette out. "a lot of blood was shed there probably could be used as a dark dimension gate way." "Probably? Probably isn't good enough Adalie! Your Fucking father is about too." "Ok, but were going to Salem anyway." The witch said firmly "It's closest."

Bonnie knelt by the ground, they had arrived in Salem early that morning. But Adalie insisted they could not attempt to open a gateway until midnight. Midnight on all Hallow's eve to be precise. So they had gone to bed. "Can you feel that?" Adalie whispered. She could. Beneath the silvery dark grass almost tangible as though she could feel it with her fingers instead of her mind. A crack as black as sin, split the earth beneath her fingers, "Yes but how to access it?" "And where the fuck is it going to spit us out." Damon said. "Lady Ulma's I think." Adalie muttered. "What?" "What?" "You said Lady Ulma." Damon said grimly. "Oh Damon, you are naughty about aristocracy." Adalie sighed. "But as for accessing it. " She clicked her fingers.

Like a fire work yellow flames erupted from the earth. It snarled against the wind, chanting swirled out the smoke and the edge of a werewolf howl sliced through the air. She took hold automatically of Elena and Meredith's hands. They seemed unperplexed she guessed that you could only here the horror if you were physic. But Adalie seemed strangely excited her lips pulled into a creamy pout. "So you know just walk through the fire." "What!" Elena shouted over the wind. "JUST WALK THROUGH THE FLAMES." "No!" Stefan shouted. "OH SHUT UP YOU OVER PROTECTEIVE BASTARD." Adalie yelled. Elena turned to Bonnie and hugged her tightly "We'll be back." she promised Meredith hugged Bonnie as well. And they took hands, "Stefan." Elena yelled "We've got to go in together." Without a word to Bonnie Stefan immediately appeared in a blur at his mistress's side. And haltingly they walked up to the flames. Bonnie stayed their rigid as with a blood curdling wail they disappeared into the white heart of the fire.

She turned numbly to look at Damon and Adalie. Who were saying goodbye several feet away from her. Because of the wind and the sounds in her own head, she saw Damon mouth "Sorry." And lean over to kiss her. She kissed him chastely and then shoved him away. For a moment he lingered teetering on the balls of his feet about to walk over to Bonnie. And then he changed his mind and turned back to the flames.

Something in Bonnie woke up. And she screamed "Damon." And began to run towards him, she had to tell him she had too she couldn't let him go into hell without "Damon!" She screamed again. He turned to her and seemed for a moment to reach for her desperate hand but as their skin brushed against each other he slapped it away. The blackness whirled and extinguished the flam and Bonnie just fell to the wet grass and began to cry. She didn't even here Adalie come and sit down next to her. "I'm sure he only did that because he didn't want you to accidentally get sucked in again."

Bonnie said nothing she just couldn't stop herself crying eventually the tears bean to ease "I'm sorry." She said unsure why she was asking but knowing in the pit of her stomach she had to. "But I need to ask, who is Caitlin MacLachlan?" Adalie bit her lip Bonnie could see in the half light her working out how much to tell her.

"She was my friend." She said at last "A French Scot her grandmother was a maid who married a duke and we were a trio like you, Elena and Meredith. With another girl called Eugenia who was s beautiful by the time we were thirteen everyone had forgotten her awful name and called her Aphrodite." Adalie paused. "She looked a lot like you a petite red head Damon used to call her ginger kitten he was terribly soft on her. And then she married a handsome American doctor when she was twenty years old who was old enough to be her father. He was very damaged he'd… liberated the camps after the war." "God" Bonnie whispered "How awful." Adalie nodded and ground out her cigarette.

"We didn't exactly approve of the match he was rich or titled enough for Aphrodite and I hated the idea of getting married at all, but we smiled for the camera." In the shadows Bonnie could see Adalie's face screwed up in a painful sort of smile. "Then after they had been married a year he got drunk they had a fight and he threw her down a flight of stairs."

She sighed heavily. "And then hah! The real skeleton in the fucking closet, I killed him you know I shouldn't have done but it was either going to be Damon, Aphrodite or I and surprisingly I was the most humane. I found out why he did it then. She was six months pregnant."

She turned to Bonnie and smiled shaking her head. "Little boy, they had been using protection all year ,her husband wasn't really a one for reproducing not after what he'd seen during the war and what he saw in the mirror every morning after a hangover no doubt. And of course the baby was Damon's." "What! Oh lord." More tears flowed down Bonnie's cheeks as she looked at Adalie in shock "They were going to have a son." "Yeah." Bonnie closed her eyes beneath her lids she imagined the scarlet haired ghost who she had been at one with holding a fading Damon eyed baby to her breast. "God." She whispered again.

Adalie lit a cigarette "I'm sorry I didn't mean to upset…" "No, its fine" Bonnie said quickly.

"I think you will see them again you know." She said. "Really, last night you said only two of them were going to come out alive." "Oh." Adalie grimaced "Well you know how time works in the dark dimension maybe its been a hundred years already and the slaves have been freed and they all died in the revolution." Bonnie gave her an agonized look "Sorry." She muttered "I know I'm not helping." Bonnie said nothing the need the desire for him was almost too much she felt like screaming. "Just one more thing." Adalie's voice seemed curiously far away. She was standing up the unnerving sense of outer body was filling Bonnie, but she could not open her mouth to make a sound. Slowly in a unfolding motion she stood.

"Do you possess a pendant on a platinum chain? It's a pretty little thing a diamond and sapphire star. Do you have it?" " Yes." Bonnie whispered. "My Grandmother…" "It's a witch charm; please keep it safe for me darling. Keep it safe."

And like falling back to the grave, the earth slid beneath her feet and she was laying on tarmac her red hair or was it blood? Streaming behind her head. The velvet sky studded with silver stars, blurred in her vision. The whine of a ambulance and the flicker of red blue lights, her name "Miss McCullough." "Miss McCullough." Over and over. Better to forget she closed her eyes. Better to forget.


End file.
